A Friend's Experience with a Loan Mod Gone Bad

I was in San Diego this past weekend for a seminar. We have a little (under 1,000 sq.ft) home there with a beautiful view of the San Diego bay and it's "get-away" time when we go there. We don't cook, we go out to eat and we don't even make coffee in the morning, we go down to our favorite little place and catch up with the owners over breakfast.

This is a place where the 2nd time you go in they remember you and ask if you want whatever you had the first time. And since I'm a creature of habit they have my coffee and bagel ready by time I get to the cash register even if there's a line in front of me!

So we were talking the last time I was there about loan modifications and they were in the process of getting one...but they said it had been 3 months and nothing had happened. When they called the bank they said someone contacted them 3 months ago and said they were working on behalf of our friends, but they never contacted the bank again.

Now they paid $3,000 up-front for this help. NEVER do that! Anyway I got an update and now they were getting nasty letters from the bank. I called the Ed, the guy I know who I refer people to for loan modifications (unfortunately we hadn't seen our friends since before the holdiays) and asked him if he'd check on what was going on for them.

His e-mail to me started with "they are in so much trouble!" Seems it was a real estate agent who took their money and said they'd handle the loan mod for them, then they did nothing. So our friends haven't made a payment since October and now the bank just notified them they are starting foreclosure.

He and his firm have great contacts, but even so this is going to be a squeeker as to whether he can stop the foreclosure.

Now Ed also went to law school, so he told them they should file a complaint with the Real Estate board and consider small claims court to get their money back. The point in all of this is that there are a lot of people taking advantage of people who are in trouble with their mortgages and they are easy "prey." Please, if you need information on home loan modifications go to the website I created with lots of information and referrals to two reputable companies (and I recommend you compare at least two companies whenever you buy anything!) and Ed's firm is one of them.

And just as I found out with my friends at the coffee shop, you never know when someone you know might be in need of good, reliable, honest information on home loan modifications, so please pass along the website at www.loanmodifications4help.homestead.com to people you know. They may not need it, but might know someone who does. There are way too many unethical companies out there taking advantage of people.